Making Dreams Happen: How to Turn Your Ideas into Reality
So, having selected the ONE thing that YOU ARE GOING TO ACHIEVE- your Absolute Commitment - this blog is especially for all of you who have a long list of goals & milestones you want to achieve.
So, let’s get on with it:
Definitions: Dreams, Ambitions, Goals
We often focus so much on the definitions set by others, that we lose sight of our objective of achieving the success we deserve, the way we have defined it.
Dreams - a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. – During sleep? So, does that mean they are real or not? Can we turn our dream into reality? …. Well, we are back to our conversation on thoughts …. It’s only the thoughts we act on that have value, everything else is just a wasted thought.
Ambitions - a strong desire to do or achieve something. – A strong desire is just not definite enough for me. When we were children we had ambitions, we are in a much stronger position now to make our ambitions more concrete.
Goals - A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person envisions, plans and commits to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. – So, this is something much more concrete, and notice the words “commits to” and “finite time”. This is exactly what I have been telling you to write on your blank piece of paper but for that I have been asking you for the ONE big achievement you want to make in life.
For me, ‘Goals’- are about “the purpose toward which an endeavour is directed” and that’s what this next step is all about.
I want to show you how quickly things can happen if you Focus on them and how achieving small steps can lead you to achieving the bigger picture.
So, instead of getting hung up on definitions, I am going to call our next steps: ‘Madinaut Milestones’ ; as you will recall Madinauts are explorers of opportunities, and we are now going to set milestones to attract those opportunities.
Ready?
One Small Madinaut Milestone for You - One giant Madinaut Milestone for humanity!
Setting and Achieving Goals: A Step-by-Step Guide
So, you need another blank sheet of paper, and you are now going to set out 5-10 (10 maximum) things that you would like to achieve.
You will need to prioritise your Madinaut Milestones into short-term, medium-term and long-term. That way you can see the progress and stay motivated. This is something normal termed “Goal-setting”.
BUT, BEFORE YOU DO THAT – START HERE:
Key questions to ask yourself before setting you goals
I recommend you ask yourself these questions before setting out your Madinaut Milestones:
STEP 1:
Take a blank piece of paper with 100+ lines
Divide it into three columns: Ambition: Why: Timeline
STEP 2:
Ask yourself:
- What are the 100 things I would like to achieve in my life? (Just do this exercise quickly, without really thinking about it – The objective is to get everything out of your head)
These go in the Ambitions column, one line for each ambition.
- Why? - Now go through the list and write down why each of these things is important to you.
- What is the motivation behind choosing these 100 things? Is there a specific reason you really want to achieve these ambitions?
These go in the Why column alongside the relevant ambition.
- When would I like to achieve this ambitions?
The answer for each one goes in the Timeline column.
STEP 3:
Now go away and take a cup of tea, and relax – Everything is down on paper, so your mind can have a rest.
STEP 4:
When you came back: Take a look at the sheet and remove 50 of the lines, because they are dreams, ambitions or goals which are not that important to you.
STEP 5:
Now, look at the remaining 50 answers, can you combine some of these.
You now have the difficult job of choosing your top 5-10 - As I said at the beginning, no more than 10!
To help you do this, go back and look at what you wrote on your first blank piece of paper, where you set out the ONE goal you want to achieve in life.
Which Ambitions on your list best match with the ONE Absolute Commitment you want to achieve?
The timelines you have already established, do you need to adjust them?
Make sure your milestones are spread between short-term, medium term and long term.
And if there is a little gremlin in the back of your mind going “But how?” “How will you do this?” – just ask him to be quiet because at this stage the “How? Is not important.
Remember: Whatever the mind can conceive, once YOU believe, you can achieve!
Defining your Goals – Madinaut Milestones
Considerations for setting your Madinaut Milestones:
What did you want to do when you were a child?
What were your aspirations?
What are the things you would like to achieve most now?
Are they on your list?
Are you making the most of your day and of your talents? Is there something you would like to change and challenge yourself to do?
What are you getting out of bed for tomorrow?
All these exercises can be used during any period in your life and for any purpose. Please continue to question yourself on the life you want for yourself, not on the life others chose to define for us.
Your Roadmap to Achieving Repeated Success
Short-term Madinaut Milestones are things you want to achieve in the next few weeks or months. For example, if your milestone is to start a food business, you may say that in the next month you will prepare and test 10 recipes for your new business.
One of my short-term milestones is to rebalance my life and have 2 hours in the garden every day at least 3 days a week. The other was to start blogging – which you can see, I am already doing!
Medium-term Madinaut Milestones are things you want to achieve in the next year or so. For example, if your milestone is to improve your fitness, a medium-term milestone might be to run a half marathon in the next year. If your milestone is the food business, you may want to have opened your first outlet within the 12 months.
One of my medium-term goals is to write a second and third book, both of which I have already started and connecting with my readers on the blog site and social media is really helping me define what to focus on and write about.
Long-term Madinaut Milestones are things you want to achieve in the next few years or more. For example, you may want to take your business from one outlet to a global franchise.
One of my long-term milestones is to have an investment fund to support women in business who need financial support and cannot access the funding through normal channels. This long-term milestone is because I struggled as a woman when I started in business because no one would lend me money because I was female!
Setting milestones is a necessary part of any successful endeavour.
However, as you know me well now, simply setting goals or milestones is not enough – you also need to take action to achieve them.
From setting milestones to reaching the destination
So, let me share with you how what I conceived, I have achieved.
I will share my Madinaut Milestones with you so you can have a live case study:
Madinaut Milestone 1: I want an OBE – Order of the British Empire. It is an award from the Queen in the England for people who have done something for their community. As I have no qualifications it would be nice to have some recognition for the things that I do for people around the world as a UK citizen. But then I found out that you could pay for them and buy one by giving a donation to a UK political party! This is against my ethics, so now I do not want one now.
I crossed it out and have replaced it by A BOOK! And Madi No Excuses! has been published and I’ve sold over 2000 copies. (sold, not given away!)
As soon as ‘write and publish a book’ went on my Madinaut Milestones list, I started making it happen.
You can order an original version with a fabric cover in cream or black and signed by me directly from the Madi No Excuses website. Each book contains your unique Commitment bead.
Or in Kindle, paperback and hardback from Amazon. In this case there are instructions in your order on how to claim your free unique Commitment bead.
Now that I have done the book, I would like to write another book... so I am leaving "A BOOK" on my Madinaut Milestone list as it is, but I realise I will have to be more specific in listing exact subjects on which I want to write to make it more concrete.
I should also add the number of books I would like to sell!
And possibly define a time frame by which I should do it – The first book took me almost 3 years to complete because I struggled to find time to prioritise it!
Madinaut Milestone 2: I want to be on BROADWAY – This was me testing my process.
Was it possible to make something happen in the same way I was telling others?
Let me try... I had a passion for acting, drama and tap dancing 40 years ago, and I still wish I could do more of these things today. Drama occasionally drops into my public speaking activities anyway. So, I set myself the Madinaut Milestone of being on ‘Broadway’.
In 2005, I moved to a new office: “8 Broadway, Nottingham”!!!
Please make sure you are specific and be clear! Obviously, it was much easier for my genie to give me an office address in Nottingham than put me on the stage in Broadway, Times Square, New York!
Having achieved that Madinaut Milestone I have now replaced it with an Honorary Degree, just so that at some point my mum can have a picture of me on the wall like those of my other sisters, and my daughter, in their graduation gowns!
Madinaut Milestone 3: My Jaguar
This one I am going to save for the next blog because I want you to start your list of milestones first, and then I want to explain to you exactly how setting your Madinaut Milestones turns into you getting the success you want, the way you define it.
Retirement and Inaction Can be a Death Sentence
I would like to end this blog with a serious warning!
There is a reason we set Madinaut Milestones and goals in life, and keep updating our lists, because if we don’t, there can be serious consequences:
I ask you to set Madinaut Milestones, and when you have achieved them, you must replace them with your next ones.
Madinaut Milestones are there to tell our minds what we are going to achieve, what we are living for, what we have to get up for!
When you know what you want, why you need to get up, there is no longer a need to set the alarm clock - you will be up and out before the dawn breaks!
Remember you are in control of your mind and so should you be in control of your future.
However, many people struggle to wake up and get out of bed every morning, it is because they do not know their purpose in life. What do they need to get up for?
What are YOU getting up for?
Did you know that 82 % of the people hate their jobs? That is a shocking number of people who are doing something every day that they do not like. Sadly, they are the people getting up in the morning just for the money. They may have some money, but the true value of life is passing them by.
Are you one of those 82%?
The word retirement is often a death sentence in this context, because people look forward to retirement after a life of hard work but they forget to put anything on their paper of Milestones to achieve during that retirement, years which could be the best of their lives!
As a result, the first few days of retirement come and then there is nothing to get up for. So, the mind and body stop getting up. You know what happens next...
You really need to think about what it is you really want out of life.
There is no point having lots of money if you cannot enjoy it, or if it deprives you of other things which you prefer to have in your life.
Furthermore, in today’s society where stress is an everyday word, even money cannot always buy you good health.
“Nothing happens until something moves.” - Albert Einstein
I am not a certified coach, but I am an experienced leader who has been working on personal development and communication for several decades. I don’t bite, and I don’t charge unless I know I can help. All initial conversations are free and confidential.
Gandhi said, “You must be the change YOU want to see” Madi says, “You must be the change YOU want to see – NO EXCUSES!”
Founder Madi Group www.madisharma.org
Founder Women’s Eco-nomic & Social Think Tank www.westt.eu Author Madi No Excuses! www.madinoexcuses.com Entrepreneur, International Speaker, Freelance Journalist Listed as 1 of apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy in 2018
@MadiSharma1
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